Computer files need to be arranged in some manner that allows the user to figure out which one is which. At present, however, it is pretty much up to the user to come up with a useful scheme, such as by providing a meaningful name for each file and folder and some type of folder hierarchy, and then fit each file into the scheme when it is saved. This works well for a file that fits into one category, and retain its basic characteristics, e.g., a user may have a parent folder for work projects, with a subfolder for each particular project, and then put any document related to a particular project into its corresponding folder.
However, for many users, there are possibly many files that do not fit into the traditional folder hierarchy scheme. For example, most users would prefer to sort digital photographs by other criteria, such as the way they look, whether they are to be printed, shared, posted to the web, saved for subsequent filtering. While it is possible to use different folders for each such category, this is slow and may lead to unnecessary duplication. Indeed, as the number of digital photographs increases in a user's collection, such as into the thousands, managing them becomes a difficult task, in part because digital photographs are maintained on a computer system as any other file.
What is needed is a mechanism that facilitates the management of digital files and digital data such as photographs, including providing a rapid and convenient sorting mechanism.